Todd Scott, 32, has two children under age 5. Each workday, he leaves his job at Himmelrich Public Relations in Baltimore at 5 p.m. to be with his family and even then feels guilty he isn't spending enough time with Hunter, 4, and Anna, 1.

Forget about the $350 stilettos. Shoes with status these days come with $1,000 price tags. And $600 handbags have become so bourgeois. A-listers don't want to be seen with anything costing less than $5,000.

Students are using MP3 players more to listen to downloaded books, textbook study guides and language labs on-the-go. The percentages are still small, according to a recent study, but the actual numbers are growing, and companies that make educational materials are banking on them climbing higher.

Jaime Bergerson began Teens4Peace two years ago when her English teacher had her class write poetry about their reaction to pictures of the genocide in Darfur. "Everyone in my class was shocked and they didn't know what was happening," says Bergerson, 17, a high school senior from Potomac, Md. "So I created a means for them to get involved and for them to participate. Teens4Peace started because there was no real organization for high school students to become socially involved."